Across the Atlantic, the breaking news is that Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi has been ordered to stand trial on charges he paid for sex with an underage girl and then tried to cover it up.

On this side of the pond, a raucous opening day of the final week before a one-week break in the Commons sitting is likely to beget more of the same today.

International Cooperation Minister Bev Oda will be back in the hot seat after admitting she ordered the word “not” written in to an official government record that had already been signed off by two top public servants. The opposition smells blood in the water. Bureaucrats see an all-too-familiar pattern emerging where the government wants to claim their support for inherently political decisions. The matter has now been referred back to Speaker Peter Milliken to decide whether Oda deliberately misled the House of Commons, a very serious charge in the legislature. Hold on: In the news business, this is known as a story with legs.

To ensure it doesn’t go away, the group to which Oda refused funding, KAIROS, has taken to selling T-shirts with the text “KAIROS is (NOT) going away.”

Another story with legs is the government’s handling of the Globalive mobile phone service decision. Globalive, also known as Wind Mobile, failed the CRTC’s ownership test, a decision which was overturned in the name of competition. Wind has now been in business for more than a year, but ten days ago, a federal court judge concluded that the cabinet decision to overrule the CRTC had been made improperly. Today, Industry Minister Tony Clement and MP Steven Blaney are expected to deliver the government’s response to the court ruling.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney might be on his feet a few times too. In defending his government’s record on immigration, Kenney suggested in an interview on CBC’s Power and Politicsthat perhaps Canada had become a little keener on attracting able-bodied workers than working to reunify families with kids and aging parents, who tend to place more strains on the health and education systems. Based on the strong responses from NDP critic Olivia Chow and Liberal Rob Oliphant, who followed Kenney as guests on the show, this issue isn’t dying down either.

Heritage Minister James Moore will host Flag Day ceremonies on Parliament Hill at noon. Later in the day, Prime Minister Stephen Harper will hold a photo opportunity to honour National Flag of Canada Day.

The Flag Day fun doesn’t just happen on Parliament Hill, though. It extends down the block to the Chateau Laurier, where the Macdonald-Laurier Institute holds its first ever Soirée, which boasts Milliken as master of ceremonies and former prime ministers Jean Chrétien and Joe Clark on the guest list.

Nearby, Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak will hold his Ottawa reception tonight at Play on Sussex.

But before the evening fun, the committee rooms will be hopping today:

Former MP staffer Russell Ullyatt, who was fired last year for leaking a confidential committee report, is scheduled before the standing committee on Procedure and House Affairs to discuss his role in the “premature disclosure” of a draft report on the budget.

Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page will present his updated fiscal projections to the Commons Finance committee. The lookahead is expected to show that the government is still stuck in the red in 2015-16, which is when Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has stated it will be back in the black. The committee will also hear from a second wave of witnesses, including Glen Hodgson, chief economist for the Conference Board of Canada.

The president of the Dairy Farmers of Canada will be among the witnesses making their positions known to the International Trade committeeon the proposed Canada-Europe Free Trade Agreement. The GM of Cavendish Farms and University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist will also appear.

Later in the morning, the Agriculture committee, which has returned from a series of hearings across Canada, will continue to listen to experts and concerned farmers about the state of the biotech industry in agriculture.

Switching gears later in the day, the Transport committee shifts its attention to Bill C-33, which proposes “consequential” changes to the Railway Act. The witness list reads as a who’s who of the railway sector, including CN, CP, VIA Rail and the Railway Association of Canada.

The debate over the Amundsen, the government’s climate change research vessel that it plans to rent out to Imperial Oil and BP, rekindles today before the Fisheries and Oceans committee with witnesses from both oil giants appearing, as well as Laval University biologist Louis Fortier.

It’s hard to imagine Maclean’s magazine opting to reopen the national debate over which is the most corrupt province in confederation, but Nova Scotia might find itself a candidate for the dubious distinction. This time there are actual criminal allegations and politicians under indictment. Yesterday, the RCMP laid 52 charges against one sitting and three former members of the legislature, representing three different political parties. The charges come after a nine-month investigation into the use of constituency funds.

Welcome back, Yvonne Jones. The Liberal leader is back on the job in Newfoundland, six months after she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Jones, the opposition leader, will campaign for the Liberal candidate in the Corner Brook byelection this weekend. She is scheduled for radiation therapy at the end of the month, having undergone surgery and chemo. “I was proofing press releases from the chemo lab,” she joked. Jones plans to be back in the House when it returns in March.